MCI faces new fraud inquiry

Call for Capellas to resign

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MCI - aka Worldcom and currently battling Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection following its $11bn accounting scandal - is at the centre of a fresh round of allegations concerning its murky past.

Rival telco AT&T Corp accused MCI of improperly rerouting long-distance calls in the US and Canada in order to avoid paying hundreds of millions of dollars in access fees to other phone companies.

The allegations - which also alleged that this practise put national security at risk because it exposed Government phone calls to eavesdroppers - were made in a filing to the US Bankruptcy Court yesterday.

Responding to the allegations MCI chairman and chief exec, Michael D Capellas, said the company had met the US Attorneys Office to understand the exact nature of the inquiry.

"We committed to them our full cooperation in their efforts. We also are conducting our own internal analysis and are working vigorously to gather data so that we can provide the most complete set of facts.

"As I have said all along, we will do the right thing. We have a zero-tolerance policy and if any wrongdoing is discovered you can be certain that we will take appropriate action swiftly."

However, this tough talking has failed to convince critics that MCI is dealing with its past.

Mitch Marcus, a former WorldCom account manager and
the founder of lobby site BoycottMCI.com, has called on Capellas to resign over this latest matter claiming that the "culture of corporate corruption runs deep at MCI/WorldCom".

Last month two reports into the collapse of WorldCom were critical of the company arguing that a strong culture of secrecy saw management repeatedly burying financial data from its board and auditors. ®